Diego Dominguez Hasn't Been Sacked, Toulon Just Have A New Head Coach

Toulon moved to second on the Top 14 table Sunday with a bonus point win in their first game under new head coach Mike Ford. But the intricacies of French employment law mean old coach Diego Dominguez hasn’t technically been fired. James Harrington explains.

Toulon head coach Diego Dominguez has gone – out on his ear after three months in a job he’s been waiting for since December 2014, replaced by former Bath coach Mike ‘Dad-of-George’ Ford.

He was shown the door, ironically, after Toulon picked up a desperately needed win at Sale in the European Champions Cup that kept their hopes of reaching the knockout phase just about alive.

Dominguez insisted he was “content” with the 15-5 win, but he was about the only one who was. On announcing his head coach’s ‘suspension’, Toulon president Mourad Boudjellal said: “I wasn’t happy with what I was seeing. If I were a Toulon fan, I wouldn’t feel like buying a ticket to come to the stadium.”

The last straw, apparently, came when Ford – brought in as Dominguez’s assistant with a brief to do pretty much everything a head coach is meant to do – complained that his boss was not involving the coaching team in any of his decisions.

The situation is not as simple as it sounds. For a start, Dominguez hasn’t actually gone. Not entirely. He’s been relieved of his duties until further notice, according to the club’s not-really-surprising surprise press release. This matters because French employment law is so incredibly convoluted and weighted in favour of the employee that no one – not even Toulon president Boudjellal – finds it easy to even consider sacking someone.

Ask Fabien Galthie. Or, rather, don’t. He’s still engaged in a legal tangle with Montpellier after being ‘suspended’ by the club in January 2015. A tribunal will take place in December, but until a ruling is made, probably in early 2017, he is technically still on Montpellier’s books, which is why he has not yet taken a coaching job elsewhere.

It is clear to everyone that Galthie is not going back to the Altrad Stadium unless he takes a job with another Top 14 club. Jake White was given his job, and will be replaced next season by Vern Cotter, but French law will have its ponderous way.

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Dominguez left a side sitting in an apparently healthy fourth place in the Top 14, with four wins from eight, but the writing had been on the wall for some time. His record included defeat at Bayonne in August – the Basque Country club’s only win this season – as well as Brive’s first win at Toulon in a decade and a rugby lesson from European Champions Cup rivals Saracens at Stade Mayol.

Toulon do not lose at home – and they definitely do not lose at home in Europe.

So Dominguez isn’t in charge at Toulon right now. Mike Ford is. And the club picked up a handy bonus-point six-try demolition of lowly Grenoble in his first match in charge to move into second place in the Top 14, as the ex-Bath man delivered on his early promise to bring attacking rugby back to the Mediterranean club.

The Dominguez situation was bizarre from beginning to end. He was unveiled as the man to replace Bernard Laporte to a collective “huh?” on December 20, 2014, after the former France coach decided to leave club rugby to pursue the presidency of the FFR.

At the time, Toulon had a team full of superstars and a bulging trophy cabinet. They had, surely, their pick of the cream of the rugby coaching crop. And, yet, Boudjellal chose Dominguez – a fine player for both Stade Francais and Italy, certainly – but a man whose coaching experience was as close to zero (a couple of summer rugby camps for children) as you could possibly get.

It was hardly the grounding for a job in charge of the galatic egos of the three-time European champions. But Boudjellal said at the time that he knew within ten minutes of talking to Dominguez over dinner that the Argentinian was the man for the job.

As it turned out, he very clearly wasn’t. It is to Boudjellal’s credit that he has admitted he made a mistake. Now, he and Ford and thousands of Toulon fans will be hoping he hasn’t made a second one in quick succession.